Tour de Hollister

I've never been to Hollister.  I tried to go to the last HD rally that they held in Hollister, but could not make it when I came down with beer poisoning.  I know what you are think...too much beer.  That was not the case, it was one beer, a bad beer.  I had brewed it up myself.  The beer was stacked in my garage fridge like cord wood.  I had drank it for weeks when I came to that one beer that did not taste..."quite right".  Well, it was not quite right.  4 days of puking and diarrhea until I could finally think about beer again.  I'm happy to report that the incident is behind me now, but needless to say, I did not make it to Hollister that weekend.

Today was quite different.  Julie and I were without our fellow Mild Hogs for this trip. We passed through Gilroy on the way, the smell of garlic was strong and we somehow fought the urge to stop and sample garlic wine and garlic candy.  Before long we entered Hollister, famous for the movie The Wild Ones, starring Marlo Brando as a renegade biker.  I've never seen the movie, but I guess it is about a motorcycle "club" terrorizing the town of Hollister.  Since then, Hollister has been a spot for HD rally's until they decided it was too much trouble and stopped having them, the same year as the beer poisoning.

Well, Hollister is not much to look at.  It is an agricultural town with some light manufacturing.  I suspect companies move there for the cheap labor.  When you think about it, it is isolated, the only major industry is picking crops.  Companies would not have to pay much to attract labor away from the fields.  Perhaps that is why Corbin, manufacturer of motorcycle seats is located there.  It was the reason we were going to Hollister.  We wanted to see the various seats that they manufacture.

We arrived around lunch time.  The show room had a variety of motorcycles on display, each with a different style of Corbin seat.  There was a person polishing the bikes, but he never looked up when we entered.  He was clearly not a salesperson.  As a matter of fact, we never saw a salesperson.  The front counter was empty and no one appeared the entire time we casually walked the show room.  I guess we could have rousted someone from the back if we were really interested in buying, but lack of service turned me off.  We did look through the various leather options.  They even had ostrich.  Julie was convinced it was real until I asked her to make a bet.  She said something about $2000 purses and then quickly changed the subject and I was glad she did.  If we did want to buy a seat, they manufacture them on the spot and install them as you wait as several folks were having their bikes worked on while we were there.

It was lunch time and we were hungry, imagine that...  Fortunately for us, they have a cafe on site.  It was actually very nice.  The walls were filled with pictures of all types of motorcycles, movie posters with motorcycles and all kinds of racing photos.  As we sat at our booth I had the distinct impression we were being watched.  I scanned the place and did not see anyone paying any particular attention to us, perhaps Julie, but that is normal.  Then I saw it, on the wall above our booth was a framed and signed racing picture that captured two dirt track riders in close combat on the curve of a track.  One of the daring riders had his front tire under the arm of the other rider as he passed him on the inside.  HEY!  That rider was Kirk, one of our club members!  He even dated and signed the picture, January 6, 1973.  I explained to Julie that they did have picture cameras back then.  Being only 4 months old at that time, she would not have known.

Kirk's Picture at the Corbin Cafe in Hollister

Our lunch at the cafe was really breakfast which they serve until 2 PM.  The egg yokes were a dark orange, typical of the eggs you would find on a farm, not in the store.  The service was good, unlike the showroom, and the food was tasty.  The ride home was uneventful, but windy.  While we enjoyed the trip to Hollister, I will add it to Gillette, Wyoming as towns you only need to visit once.

See you on the road.